After voters in May approved a measure placing the city auditor under the Killeen City Council, officials are taking additional steps to protect the city against fraud.

At a council workshop this week, the council established an audit advisory committee and — at the suggestion of City Auditor Amanda Wallace — introduced new outlets for residents and city staff to report fraud.

Wallace’s position, which was previously under the city manager, became controversial in April, when her audit of the Fleet Services Division was named in a lawsuit against the city.

In the lawsuit, fired finance director Barbara Gonzales accused City Manager Glenn Morrison of breaking state and local finance laws, and called the audit an “undocumented, unfounded and unprofessional hit-job,” because it was under Morrison’s direction. The city has denied Gonzales’ claims.

The purpose of Proposition 12, which passed with more than 80 percent of the vote, was to resolve conflicts in the city charter by no longer giving the city manager the power to hire and fire the city auditor.

The council appointed Killeen Mayor Dan Corbin and Councilmen Jose Segarra and Jonathan Okray as members of the audit committee, which would meet quarterly or as needed.

“We just want to make sure we do everything we can to protect the citizens,” Segarra said. “Now the auditor doesn’t report directly to the person being audited.”

Wallace also asked that the city establish a section of the city website for residents and staff to report fraud through a hotline or a complaint form, which would prompt an investigation.

Currently, the fraud hotline is only published in employee policy documents, Wallace said.

“It’s not widely known and it is very, very rarely used. I think one time since 2008,” Wallace said.

8 comments:

At a council workshop this week, the council established an audit advisory committee and — at the suggestion of City Auditor Amanda Wallace — introduced new outlets for residents and city staff to report fraud.No one has commented about the inclusion of 'Residents' in this sentence.

Now I agree that the mayor has no business being on this committee. It is just the same as Morrison being on the committee. I agree with the sentiment expressed that Corbin is a developer's man. I personally believe this is evident in his push to carry the development of the South side. No way can I agree that this is good for Killeen.

And the saga continues, we know that the mayor is backed by developer money and the good ol' boy will continue. Amanda will continue the regime of writing internal audits that are going to be reported to a man with no ethics, Dan Corbin. He has a tendency of running a corrupt practice of his own backed by developer money and comes into the city and bullies everyone. What a comedy of horrors. @ Randy Johnson, Amanda is not being bullied, she just does not do what is right. She's like all the others.@ El Residente she probably IS next in line for Glenn.

This is great - if you want to see just how involved the city manager (Glenn Morrison) still is in the audit process, check out this video of the council workshop - when they discuss the internal audit change, audit committee, and so forth.

Glenn is sitting right next to Corbin and appears to be very much involved in (and in control of) the process. Link provided below.

**It will not let me include the youtube link, possibly because of the letters at the end of the link. Just google the words below and select the corresponding youtube video:

06042013 Internal Audit - Killeen, Texas city council workshop

(It paints a clear picture of what Dan Corbin's and Glenn Morrison's involvement will be in this process.)

Segarra: "Now the auditor doesn't report directly to the person being audited."

Cobin: “This is kind of new ground for us."

If not having the internal auditor answer to the person she audits is new to the mayor, he might want to review some of the most basic auditing standards (GAO, IIA, etc.). Independence of the auditor is the most basic requirement of auditing and the reason auditors are not to be in a position of potential loss or gain from anyone they audit. The auditing standards speak to very specific requirements to ensure independence.

With that in mind, Corbin should not be on the auditing committee. If the internal auditor ever audits anything under the purview of the mayor (such as his budget) or anything that could reflect negatively on the mayor (an elected official), having the internal auditor answer to the mayor in any form is almost as bad as having her answer to the city manager.

In the same sense, the city manager should not have been able to replace the external auditing firm that reported information that was unfavorable to the city manager, including the fact that the internal auditor should NOT be answering to the city manager, the person responsible for the areas she audited.

This is not a new concept to anyone, including city management, since it was pointed out to them numerous times by multiple sources. As with other issues, it is the lawsuit that has brought this to the attention of the public. I think we also know that Corbin, of all people, has repeatedly demonstrated his lack of independence and obvious biased opinions, which he touts on his Facebook page like a 13 yr. old girl.

The audit committe should be similar to those in other cities and consit of an independent/external auditor, a citizen, and one or two city council members. There are various government approaches, but likely none that include the mayor, especially one who has been shown to have such limited integrity (and who obviously, based on his statements, has NO knowledge of auditing standards).

Regarding this, I whole hardly agree that fraud protection should be afforded to every citizen of Killeen, but I disagree with the mayor appointing himself as a member of the new fraud protection committee. As mayor of Killeen, he is to remain a bystander except in the cases of a tie. You, mayor, should appoint another unbiased member of the council.